Crestwood City Administrator Mark Sime will resign his post, effective Friday, Oct. 23, according to a statement the city released Thursday afternoon.

“Mark has been a strong advocate for the city,” Mayor Gregg Roby said in the statement. “His professional and detailed approach to managing has created a strong team of city employees. Crestwood will miss his leadership and wishes him the very best in his new endeavor.”

Roby told the Call Thursday afternoon, “… Mark’s been offered a position elsewhere, and it will be better for he and his family, and so he’s moving on.”

Sime was appointed city administrator in January 2013 by then-Mayor Jeff Schlink.

At that time, Crestwood resident Sime was employed as a consultant of transportation and logistics in the “United States transportation command at Scott Air Force Base,” he told the board.

He also served in the U.S. Air Force for 26 years before retiring as a colonel.

Asked to elaborate on his new job, Sime told the Call Friday morning, “Just another good opportunity for me, outside of city government.”

Sime, who said he plans to continue to live in Crestwood, declined to provide specifics of his new job. He added that he was not seeking another opportunity.

“This opportunity came along, and I decided it was the right opportunity,” he said.

During his tenure as city administrator, Sime said he considered the creation of an employee pay plan his biggest accomplishment and the one of which he is most proud. The new pay plan is designed to “facilitate employment and retention,” Sime wrote in a Feb. 18 memo to Roby and the Board of Aldermen.

Under the plan, employees have three ways to earn more money:

• Step increases based on performance over time.

• Promotion to a higher grade.

• A matrix pay adjustment provided for by the Board of Aldermen.

Aldermen voted earlier this year to approve the pay plan, but it has not yet been implemented. Aldermen will consider implementing the plan during the city’s budgeting process based on the availability of funding for it.

“… It will really help the employees out once it’s implemented,” Sime said, who added he has enjoyed working in Crestwood.

“I have enjoyed my time here, working with the mayor — both mayors that I worked for — the Board of Aldermen and the city employees, as we worked to move the city forward and make things better for the residents and the businesses,” he said.

The city of Crestwood has a bright future, according to Sime.

“I think that the city has a lot of potential and they just need to continue to work to meet the potential that they have and move forward with the redevelopment and growth of Crestwood,” he said.

Sime is the fourth city administrator to serve Crestwood since January 2006.

Before Sime’s appointment as city administrator, then-Fire Chief Karl Kestler had served as acting city administrator since March 2012, when then-City Administrator Petree Eastman left the position.

Eastman worked for the city from Oct. 17, 2011, through March 9, 2012.

Before Eastman, Jim Eckrich served as city administrator from July 2008 until early 2011, when he requested to become director of public services, a position he previously held.

In January 2006, Frank Myers was named city administrator, serving until spring 2008 when he resigned to take the same post in Glendale.